" I would like to live in the same soil as my ancestors, and walk under their trees, and do what they did, and think their thoughts. " - Elizabeth Lawrence. After 4 decades in Sweet Home Chicago I moved to North Carolina where my first Irish ancestor landed in the early 1700's. I'm an artist, garden designer and grandma blogging about my life in this " Southern part of Heaven " as Chapel HIll is called.

Monday, September 28, 2015

Finally my new deer proof fence is installed and I'm a happy gardener. I just planted 9 savoy cabbages and will continue to develop my Fall / Winter veggie garden. Another new addition to the Sweet Garden is my sweet puppy. Duke, 8 weeks old, is a Miniature Australian Shepherd. He is a little fluffy bear cub with a sweet personality.

Of course having a new puppy is not much different than having an infant in the house but before you know it he'll be tagging along with me in the newly fenced in garden where he'll be taught a flower from a weed.

The 'Miss Huff " Lantana was spectacular as usual despite the hot dry summer and many swallowtails and hummers found them delightfully delicious as well. The roadside wildflower garden flourished with coreopsis, milkweed, blanket flowers, sages, Joe Pye weed, goldenrod and ornamental grasses, to name a few.

Monarch butterflies found their way to my garden to lay their eggs on my milkweed. The boulder garden is filling in nicely as well. I had to bring in 5 yards of fill dirt to grade some low areas in the backyard where my veggie garden will be.

Fall has arrived and September is departing. Where did the time go ? Looking forward to October and cooler weather to garden in .

Down the wind that has beginning

Where the crumpled beeches start

In a fringe of salty reeds;

When my arms are elder-bushes,

And the rangy lilac pushes

Upward, upward through my heart;

Summer, do your worst!

Light your tinsel moon, and call on

Your performing stars to fall on

Headlong through your paper sky;

Nevermore shall I be cursed

By a flushed and amorous slattern,

With her dusty laces' pattern

Trailing, as she straggles by

-Dorothy Parker

August was dry, dry, dry and the temperatures were high so whatever watering I did was quickly absorbed. To conserve water I added compost with biochar which is supposed to cut down on moisture loss. I also covered the beds with a layer of pine needles and leaf mulch.

Meanwhile much to my delight I discovered that the endangered Monarch butterfly had discovered my milkweed that I planted last year. I counted at least 8 caterpillars.

I started laying out the herb garden even though my backyard fence is not going to be installed until early September. The deer and rabbits don't seem to like the herbs but they have devastated my tomatoes .

Despite the lack of rain this month the woodland garden which is partly shady has continued to thrive. I added some colorful birds from a local artisan to provide some much needed color and whimsy.

The last day of August brought relief in a drenching overnight rain that saturated the garden and filled the rain barrels.